Within an hour of submitting my resume for the position online, I received a phone call asking to come in for an interview the next day. The first interview was a basic screening interview with an HR specialist and another girl. They were both very nice and at the end of about a 20-minute interview, I was told they would be calling candidates back by the end of the week (this was on a Wednesday).
As soon as I got home–about 30 minutes later–I received a call from the HR specialist asking if I could come back in for a second interview with the HR Director the next day (Thursday). Great, I thought. I was called back quickly and sooner than they initially stated, so I took this as a good sign.
In the second interview, the director was very nice and I got good vibes from our conversation. She expressed how badly they needed to fill the role and mentioned how management in another department had just asked her that day when she was going to be making a hire for the position. The interview ran 45 minutes long and I was only asked three or four questions the entire duration. I took this as a positive sign, since the director mainly talked for the duration, telling me about what would be expected of me in the role, who I would need to be communicating with and how often, and even telling a personal story. In other interviews that play out like this, it's usually a sign you have the job (especially one that's been up for three weeks and has asked you to come in for two separate interviews in under an hour of speaking with them). Not at PetIQ, apparently.
Towards the end of the second interview, I was told that if this part-time position were to go full-time, the pay rate would go down from $16/hour to $15/hour. I thought this was super weird, considering I've never heard this in any field ever, and did politely ask if it would be possible for a raise in the future, since I have eight years of writing experience and already make more than that doing freelance work. She said yes, but it's possible that my asking this put her off.
She ended up talking for about five more minutes and then gave me the classic "I'll let you know either way" line and told me she'd be making a decision by the next day (Friday) or Monday. Well, Friday came and went and so did Monday. On Tuesday, I followed up with a phone call and a message letting her know that I knew she was busy but would appreciate an updated timeline for a decision.
I never ended up hearing back from her like she promised, but did finally get an email that Friday (almost a week after the proposed decision date) from the HR specialist I did the first interview with, stating that they were sorry to inform me I wasn't selected.
What really irritates me about this whole thing is that I was given all the right signs that I had the job, then left hanging when I was promised to receive a callback on a decision. During that week of waiting, I ended up missing out on a better opportunity because I thought I was going to receive an offer (won't make that mistake again). My other qualm is, I like to know the reason for not getting a job if that happens, and would have liked to ask what I did wrong in this interview to improve my chances for the next one. If I had heard from the director like she said I would, I could have asked this.
All in all, I was left with an extremely bad taste in my mouth about this company, from the changing of the pay rate surprise to the way the decision-making process was handled. I felt jerked around and it ended up being a huge waste of time I could have spent applying to other companies with better organization.
